As we anticipate the war on Christmas, the war on consumerism takes a hiatus. Starting Black Friday, retailers ratchet up their advertising as they clamor for our holiday shopping dollar. Advertisers would be wise to put aside their contempt for everything east of the Delaware and west of the Colorado for a season. Retailers would be wise to pinch their turned up noses and broaden their targeted market share to the 49% who didn’t vote Obama, placing ads where ROI trumps point of view.

”Republicans buy sneakers too,” should be the mindset of fiscally savvy retailers who want to earn a profit this season. Advertisers and retailers alike would be wise to heed the advice of the king of product endorsement and ‘Be Like Mike.’

Since the inception of personal politics, party activists have tried their best to alienate conservatives as mere consumers of Fox and WalMart. Activists completely disregard the fact that 49% of us consume other forms of entertainment and products – we watch movies, we buy cars, we even like to save 15% on car insurance.

Activists from Media Matters and Democrats.com have launched scathing attacks and boycotts against Fox and its advertisers. Yet, try as they may, Fox and their sponsors continue to triumph over their aggressors having withstood the smear campaigns and isolationist tactics.

Though many have crumbled, Orbitz stands as an example of one company that did not succumb to the pressure of coercion, choosing rather to appeal to their shareholders’ interests than becoming a pawn in someone else’s political battle.

Now that the Media Matters and Democrats.com have quietly conceded freezing Fox (for now), the stratagem has shifted elsewhere – the networks’ highest rated program, NFL Sunday Night Football. As Sunday Night Football continues to dominate network ratings, Democrats are holding closed door sessions with the league. The Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change led by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), wants to know what the league is doing about the growing threat of global warming. (Nothing says tackling climate change like a suited-up Henry Waxman.) Given the success of the government takeover of the healthcare system, it will be interesting to see the catchy campaign slogans team Waxman-Goodell come up with on Sunday night – this is your car…this is your car on fossil fuels or Bob Costas – he keeps going, and going, and going. We’ll go from homilies on gun control to halftime sermons on what are you doing to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.

Our one televised reprieve from the politically correct world of network programming now infiltrated by if you’re not with us, you’re against us propaganda – segmenting and isolating viewers by ideology rather than team.

Pretty soon Fox Sports will find itself targeted and isolated. It’s only a matter of time when NFC teams and their advertisers will be labeled flat-earthers and science-deniers for not painting Cletus the robot green.

So as much as I respect Fox and its advertisers like PCMatic (wink) dot com and Rosland Capitol (what’s in your safe) for not succumbing to political pressure, those companies are most likely not under the same economic coercion to pull advertising as let’s say Audi, Lexus or BMW. Remember, Conservatives like big bows on their cars, too. So take heed retailers, this holiday season 49% of consumers will be paying close attention to the brands whose bottom lines are more important than the covering of their asses.

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